Combined letter and envelope



p 0,1957 M. B. LOETSCHER 2,805,815

COMBINED LETTER AND ENVELOPE Filed 001;. 8, 1954 ADDREssoRi ADDRESSEE 23 l 1 I9 24 ADDBESSEE OPEN HERE INVENTOR Q X MARTIBLB-LOETSCHER BY k 9 I mm! D 39 ATToiaNE Ys United States Patent 2,805,815 COMBINED LETTER AND ENVELOPE B. Loets cher, Pebble Beach, Calif.

Application October 8, 1954, Serial No. 461,191 1 Claim. or. 229-921 The purpose of the invention is to use a standard size stationery sheet 8 /2" by .11", and fold the sheet in a predetermined manner so that the sheet becomes its own envelope. Gummed strips are used for sealing the letter after it has been folded to constitute an envelope. The folding of the letter is such that the contents are not only sealed around all edges of the envelope, but in addition there is a minimum of two thicknesses of unwritten paper on both the front and the back of the envelope which is the same as when a separate envelope is used.

The address of the one to receive the envelope is placed in'the upper right hand corner on the face side of the sheet and the folding of the sheet is such as to dispose the address on the outside of the folded envelope. A stamp is also placed adjacent to the address and when thestampis cancelled by sending the letter through the mail and the envelope subsequently opened, the cancelled stamp will remain a permanent part of the opened envelope, and will appear in the upper right hand corner of the face side of the unfolded sheet. The stamp is filed with the letter.

' The return address of the sender is placed in the upper left hand side of the envelope and it will appear on the back side of the envelope that is formed from the folded sheet. A business firms letter head could be printed in the upper left hand corner of the unfolded sheet and thus the letter could be used by business firms. V

The arrangement of the gummed strips and the folding of the sheet is such that only one corner of the folded and sealed envelope can be used in opening it. This corner is disposed at the lower right hand face where there is automatically provided two four ply corners of stationery, one for the front of the envelope and one for the back, and these may be pulled apart by hand from each other when opening the envelope and will tear the single ply gummed strips. The envelope can therefore be opened at its destination by an easy, positive, clean and a one pull tearing action along the gummed strips and no special opening tool need be used. It is impossible to open the envelope any other way than by pulling apart the two juxtaposed four ply corners. The letter is undamaged when opened.

The invention is extremely simple in construction. The letter when unfolded and ready for use, may be written on the greater portion of the face side and on one half the area of the reverse side without sacrificing privacy because all of the written areas will be contained within the completely folded envelope and will be covered by a of two thicknesses of unwritten paper. The contents of the letter therefore will be completely private even when the envelope is held up to an intense light because there are eight thicknesses of paper and these will virtually make the thickness of the envelope opaque.

Other-objects and advantages will appear in the following specification and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

'My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawingforming a part of the application in which:

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Figure 1 is a front face view of the open letter prior to folding and provided with the gummed strips;

Figure 2 is a rear face view of the same letter;

Figure 3 is an edge view when looking in the direction of the arrows III-HI of Figure 2, and is on a larger scale and illustrates the manner of making the first fold in the letter; I i v Figure 4 is an edge view illustrating the mariner of making the second fold in the letter, and when looking in the direction of the arrows IVIV of Figure 5;

Figure 5 is a plan view on the same scale as Figures 1 and 2 and shows the letter after the second fold is completed;

Figure 6 is a front face view of the completely folded letter to form the envelope and the gummed strips are shown sealing the three edges of the envelope; and

Figure 7 is a plan view of a portion of one of the gummed strips.

While I have shown only the preferred form of my invention, it should be understood that various changes, or modifications, may be made vw'thin the scope of the annexed claim without departing from the spirit thereof.

In carryingout my invention I provide a letter sheet A of any material that can be written or typed upon and the sheet is preferably of the standard letter-head size, 8 /2" by 11''. The front face A of the unfolded letter is shown in Figure 1, and the rear face A is shown in Figure 2. Dot dash lines in both Figures 1 and 2 indicate where the letter A is to be folded to form the envelope shown in Figure 6.

The central dot dash line 1 extends across the letter from the edge 2 in Figure l to the opposite edge 3. Referring to Figure 2, it will be noted that a triple dot dash line 4 is shown paralleling the top edge 5 of the letter and being disposed a slight distance therebelow. The dot dash line 1 is not in the exact center of the letter A between the top edge 5 and the bottom edge 6.

When the letter A is folded outwardly about the dot dash line 1 as indicated by the dot dash arrow line in Figure 2, so as to bring the upper and lower portions of the rear face A into juxtaposition as shown in edge view on the larger scale drawing of Figure 3, the lower edge 6 will be brought adjacent to the triple dot dash line 4 'of Figure 4. This will bring the dot dash fold line 8 in Figure 2 into adjacent parallel relation to the dot dash fold line 9 in the same figure.

The letter is folded the second time by bringing the fold 1 in Figure 3 into a position adjacent to the edge 6 as shown in Figure 4. The line 9 now becomes the outer fold and the line 8, the inner fold. The folds 1, 8 and 9 have been shown as half circles in Figures 3 and 4, for purposes of clarity. In actual practice the folded portions will have their faces contacting with each other rather than being spaced apart as illustrated in these two figures. The second folding step will cause the fold -1 to line up with the edges 5 and 6. The first folding step in bringing the lower paper edge 6 into registration with the triple dot-dash line 4, gives sufiicient length to the lower half of the letter, to accommodate for the thickness of the various plies of the material used for the letter. The point to keep in mind is that the second fold should bring the edges 5 and 6 into registration with each other and into registration with the fold 1.

The partially folded letter now takes the appearance of that shown in Figure 5. The vertical fold line is indicated by the vertical dot dash line It) in Figures 1, 2 and 5. The Addressee portion of the envelope shown in Figure 5, has three gummed strips B, C and D, applied thereto. All three gummed strips are identical to each other and the gummed side of the strip B is shown in Figure 7. This strip has two gummed portions 11 and 12 that extend throughout the length of the strip and are separated from each other by a centrally disposed nonadhesive portion 13. A line of perforations 14 extends along the nonadhesive portion 13 to make the strip readily tearable when opening the'envelope in 'a manner hereinafter d escribed." i

The strip;B extends'along the top edge of the envelope in Figure 5 with the left hand end 15 spaced about /2 inch; from the fold line 19 and the right hand end 16 spaced about five-sixteenths of an inch from the right hand edge 3. I do not wish to be confined to these exact measurements. If an adhesiveis used, the portion 12 is moistened and the strip is then applied in the manner stated and the portion 11 will extend above the top edge 5. V The non-adhesive portion 13 will likewise extend above the top edge 5 and this portion is to accommodate for the thickness of the envelope when all eight plies are arranged face to face with respect to each other. The non-adhesive portion will not adhere to the edges of the envelope over which it extends.

, The tearing strip C is applied to the edge 3 in the same manner and the top end 17 of the strip is placed five sixteenths of an inch down from the edge 5, while the lower end 18 of the same strip is placed five sixteenths of an inch from the fold 9. The strip D is applied adjacent to the fold 9 and the left hand end 19 is spaced /2 inch from the fold line -while the right hand end 20 of the strip is spaced /2 inch from the edge 3. Both the strips C and D have portions that are not adhered to the front face A of the envelope. I do not wish to be confined to the exact measurements given although I have found they produce the best results.

If strips B, C and D are used that have gummed portion 11 and 12 rather than adhesive portions that need to be moistened before being able to stick, the Addressor portion of the envelope shown in Figure 5, .will have cooperating gummed areas B C and D The envelope in Figure 5 is folded along the fold line 10 as indicated by the dot-dash line arrow 21 in this figure 'so' that.

the Addresses portion of the envelope will be on one side and the Addressor portion will be on the opposite side. The extending flap portions of the strips B, C and D, and indicated by the dot-dash lines in Figure 6, will be folded over their respective edges 5 and 3, and the fold 9 and become adhered to the gummed areas B C and D of the Addressor portion for sealing the envelope by applying pressure against the strips. If adhesive is used that needs to be moistened, this can be done before bending the flap portions of the strips down onto the Addressor portion of the envelope. A stamp 22 is applied to the Addresses portion of the envelope.

The letter is preferably in its partly folded condition as in Figure 5, when offered for sale, and it remains in this condition until it is used. Just before using the letter for writing or typing purposes, the envelope is opened up in the manner shown in Figures 1 and 2. It will be noted that the face A is divided into eight equal areas from 2-3 to 3 inclusive by the dot-dash fold lines 1, 8, 9 and 19. In like manner the rear face A of the opened letter in Figure 2 is divided into a similar number of eight equal areas by the same fold lines and these are numbered from 31 to 38 inclusive.

The area 23 has the Addressors name thereon and the area 24 has the Addressees name thereon, see Figure l. The areas 25 to 30 inclusive can be used for writing or typing purposes. Gn the rear face A of the letter, the four central areas 33 to 36 inclusive can be used for writing or typing purposes. The letter is now ready to be folded in the manner already described and sealed. The dot-dash curved arrows in Figure 4 indicate how the strips B and D are folded. The areas 23 and 24 will appear as outer surfaces on the completely folded envelope. it will be noted from Figure 6, that the lower right hand corner 24a of Figure 6 has the notation open here with an arrow 39 pointing to the corner 24a.

The two nested folds 3 and 9 at the corner 2,411.,

4 provide this corner with four plies of material. In like manner the two nested folds 8 and 9 at the corner 23a in Figure 5 will provide this corner with four plies of material. Therefore when opening the envelope these two juxtaposed four ply corners, 23a and 24a, are grasped, the corner 24a being grasped between the thumb and first finger of one hand and the corner 23a being grasped between the thumb and first finger of the other hand, and then the two corners are pulled away from each other. This will cause the strips C and D to be torn, starting from the adjacent edges 18 of the strip C and 20 of the strip D. A continued pulling apart of the former juxtaposed corners 23a and 24a will completely tear the strips C and D and also tear the strip B, and open the envelope along the fold 11 From here it is a simple matter to complete the opening of the envelope so that its contents can he read.

It will be noted that the opened letter will have a uniform border made on three sides of the areas 23 and 24, and the border consists of the now severed half strips B, C and D. Furthermore, when the letter was folded to form the envelope, all of the folding steps were out and not in and this type of folding is the only way possible of exposing the Addressor area 23 and the Addressee area 24 with its stamp 22 on the face side A of the opened letter. The envelope can only be opened at the lower right hand corner 24a and it is impossible to grip one, two or three plys of the letter when opening the envelope. Only the four ply corners 23a and 24a can be gripped for opening purposes.

The use of one half the reverse side A of the letter for additional correspondence in no way sacrifices privacy if the four center areas 33, 34, 35 and 36 are used. 7 The envelope when opened by the addressee will provide him with a letter on the face side A of which will bear the dated postal cancellation mark as well as the cancelled stamp. All of this data can be filed away with the letter and might become essential in establishing a date in any legal controversy. 7

The letter is preferablysold in partially folded condition as illustrated in Figure 5. The three sealing strips B, C and D are attached to the envelope. The envelope is opened up into full letter size for writing purposes and then is folded into the envelope of Figure 6 and is sealed, stamped and mailed. No tools are necessary to open the envelope upon its arrival at the place of destination;

Not even a letter opening blade is necessary to use. While the envelope is sealed, the correspondence is completely private.

I claim:

A combined letter'and envelope formed from a sheet of paper having a face side adapted to bear writing and top and bottom edges, said paper having a firstmedian fold extending transversely across the sheet intermediate said top and bottom edges, and being folded along said fold so that writing on the face side of the sheet willbe disposed on the outer surface of the folded sheet, the two portions of the thus folded sheet havingsa second median fold extending transverselythereacross parallel to said first median fold, and being folded along said second paper being divided by a third fold, that extends at right' angles to the first and second folds, into two equal areas,

one of said areas having one edge defined by one portion of said four ply fold, the other of said areas having one edge defined by a second portion of said four-ply,

fold, one of said areas being adapted to contain an addressors name and the other being adapted to contain an addressees name, a first sealing strip extending along and secured to the top edge of said sheet substantially coextensive with said edge along one of said equal areas, a second sealing strip extending along and secured to said one of said areas adjacent said second fold, a third sealing strip extending laterally of said first and second strips and being secured adjacent the edge of said one of said areas spaced laterally from said third fold, said third strip extending parallel to said third fold, said second and said third strips terminating in spaced relation to a common end of said four-ply fold, said sheet being folded along said third fold so that one of said areas forms one outer face of the completely folded sheet and the other of said areas forms the other outer face, and so that the first and second portions of said four-ply fold are in abutting relationship, with the opposite ends of said four-ply fold being juxtaposed, said sealing strips being folded over the edges of the areas adjacent which they are respectively attached and sealingly engaged with said other of said areas, said second and third strips thus being spaced from the two opposite ends of said fourply fold whereby the two juxtaposed four-ply ends may be individually gripped and pulled apart for tearing the sealing strips and opening the sealed envelope.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 396,985 Church Jan. 29, 1889 1,447,825 Titel Mar. 6, 1923 1,461,879 Harris July 17, 1923 1,635,278 Kaplan July 12, 1927 2,114,130 Brate Apr. 12, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS 279,512 Germany July 1, 1913 318,784 Germany Feb. 20, 1920 517,560 Great Britain Feb. 1, 1940 

